Cats avoid water because they can’t swim, right? Wrong! The real reason felines tend to shun the wet stuff is because their fur quickly becomes sodden and loses its insulation properties as a consequence. The result: their body temperature drops, they become less agile and also run the risk of drowning. A kitty’s fur has …
Even if you’re not in the immediate vicinity of a lightning strike, you can still be struck – indirectly. A bolt of lightning will be distributed in all directions when it hits the ground, so the actual danger zone extends to a radius of at least ten metres from the point of entry. If you …
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Eating chocolate on the Tube was once illegal thanks to a peculiar 19th century English bylaw. Even more strangely, the edict applied solely to women riding on the London Underground. Wearing socks within 100 metres of a monarch was made illegal by Elizabeth I, who also banned shirts with “outrageous double ruffs” being worn …
One of the many things that Leonardo da Vinci turned his hand to during his life was studying trees, in particular their resistance to breakage. Today, over 500 years later, French researchers have discovered the critical speed above which trees planted in urban areas are likely to either uproot or suffer broken branches. They found …
It has seen action in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but now, 30 years after its introduction, the US Army has retired its fleet of iconic Humvees. The military vehicle will be replaced by the Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a 300 out on top after proving to be faster JLTV is clad in a landmines, …
Does my brain have seasons? – Winter blues, seasonal affective disorder, spring exhaustion – the seasons certainly influence our moods. But now Belgian researchers have found that our brain itself experiences seasonal shifts. As part of a study, participants had to solve tasks over the course of a year during which time their brain activity was …
With more autonomous unmanned vehicles being released into the air every year, the risk of collisions is increasing – recently, a BA flight from Geneva was hit by a suspected drone during its descent to Heathrow. Now there is a growing fear that drones could be used by terrorists to mount airborne attacks, and work …
A manned Mars mission is NASA’s next big project, but researchers are not only concerned with when and how mankind will get there but also how they might survive on the inhospitable red planet. The main obstacle facing the mission? In order to build a settlement there, several tons’ worth of building material from Earth …
Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina have found a way to use the polio virus as a weapon against glioblastoma, the most common and most aggressive form of brain cancer. To do so, they genetically modified the virus so that it could only multiply in tumour cells, not in healthy tissue. The virus created …
Parts of Chile’s Atacama Desert are so dry they haven’t seen rain since records began. This arid desert on Chile’s coast is often touted as the driest place on Earth thanks to its position in a rain shadow, which means moisture is ferried away over the Andes mountains. Despite the harsh conditions, more than one …
It might sound repulsive, but it’s necessary: transporting materials to space is so expensive that astronauts on board the ISS must drink their own bodily fluids. The water is purified before it’s consumed: on-board systems collect every last drop of moisture from the astronauts’ breath, sweat and urine before using iodine to disinfect the water. …
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Between 60% and 70% of an adult human body is water, depending on the individual. But specific organs vary – the heart and brain are roughly 73% water while the lungs clock in at a staggering 83%. Even our bones, which seem so solid, are 31% water. The element enables our body to transport the …
Computers don’t make mistakes, as suck, but they can make errors. When your laptop crashes, it has gone into an error condition where it fails to run the computer code effectively. If anything, the ‘mistake’ is that of the human who produced ineffective code or faulty hardware. Or it’s a simple case of the users …
As the Sun is around 150 million kilometers away, even being on top of Everest only brings you 9 km closer – far too small a difference to make you feel any warmer. The distance effect is totally overwhelmed by that of having less atmosphere around you as you climb. This leads to a steady …
Why Is It Colder At The Top Of A Mountain, If You’re Closer To The Sun? Read More »
Does it? Generally this is not true, and most people are good at judging how many hours they’ve slept. Some can even tell themselves to wake up at a specific time and do so. Time perception can be distorted, though, and experiments show that estimates are generally good, but people tend to overestimate time passed …